Active Fragments from Pro- and Antiapoptotic BCL-2 Proteins Have Distinct Membrane Behavior Reflecting Their Functional Divergence

BACKGROUND: The BCL-2 family of proteins includes pro- and antiapoptotic members acting by controlling the permeabilization of mitochondria. Although the association of these proteins with the outer mitochondrial membrane is crucial for their function, little is known about the characteristics of this interaction. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we followed a reductionist approach to clarify to what extent membrane-active regions of homologous BCL-2 family proteins contribute to their functional divergence. Using isolated mitochondria as well as model lipid Langmuir monolayers coupled with Brewster Angle Microscopy, we explored systematically and comparatively the membrane activity and membrane-peptide interactions of fragments derived from the central helical hairpin of BAX, BCL-xL and BID. The results show a connection between the differing abilities of the assayed peptide fragments to contact, insert, destabilize and porate membranes and the activity of their cognate proteins in programmed cell death. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: BCL-2 family-derived pore-forming helices thus represent structurally analogous, but functionally dissimilar membrane domains

Quantitative atomic force microscopy provides new insight into matrix vesicle mineralization

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Membranes and bioactive lipids.

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Why Do Tethered-Bilayer Lipid Membranes Suit for Functional Membrane Protein Reincorporation?

Membrane proteins (MPs) are essential for cellular functions. Understanding the functions of MPs is crucial as they constitute an important class of drug targets. However, MPs are a challenging class of biomolecules to analyze because they cannot be studied outside their native environment. Their structure, function and activity are highly dependent on the local lipid environment, and these properties are compromised when the protein does not reside in the cell membrane. Mammalian cell membranes are complex and composed of different lipid species. Model membranes have been developed to provide an adequate environment to envisage MP reconstitution. Among them, tethered-Bilayer Lipid Membranes (tBLMs) appear as the best model because they allow the lipid bilayer to be decoupled from the support. Thus, they provide a sufficient aqueous space to envisage the proper accommodation of large extra-membranous domains of MPs, extending outside. Additionally, as the bilayer remains attached to tethers covalently fixed to the solid support, they can be investigated by a wide variety of surface-sensitive analytical techniques. This review provides an overview of the different approaches developed over the last two decades to achieve sophisticated tBLMs, with a more and more complex lipid composition and adapted for functional MP reconstitution

Tethered Bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) : interest and applications for biological membrane investigations.

International audienceBiological membranes play a central role in the biology of the cell. They are not only the hydrophobic barrier allowing separation between two water soluble compartments but also a supra-molecular entity that has vital structural functions. Notably, they are involved in many exchange processes between the outside and inside cellular spaces. Accounting for the complexity of cell membranes, reliable models are needed to acquire current knowledge of the molecular processes occurring in membranes. To simplify the investigation of lipid/protein interactions, the use of biomimetic membranes is an approach that allows manipulation of the lipid composition of specific domains and/or the protein composition, and the evaluation of the reciprocal effects. Since the middle of the 80's, lipid bilayer membranes have been constantly developed as models of biological membranes with the ultimate goal to reincorporate membrane proteins for their functional investigation. In this review, after a brief description of the planar lipid bilayers as biomimetic membrane models, we will focus on the construction of the tethered Bilayer Lipid Membranes, the most promising model for efficient membrane protein reconstitution and investigation of molecular processes occurring in cell membranes

A new functional membrane protein microarray based on tethered phospholipid bilayers

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A chimiluminescent Langmuir-Blodgett membrane as the sensing layer for the reagentless monitoring of an immobilzed enzyme activity.

International audienceIn the nanotechnology field, the concept of using biomolecules as an elementary structure to develop self-assembled entities has received considerable attention. Particularly, the ability of amphiphilic molecules like lipids to self-organize into bilayers can be exploited to provide biomimetic membrane models. Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) technology, based on the transfer of an interfacial film onto a solid support, offers the possibility to prepare lipid bilayers suitable for biomolecule immobilization and achievement of nanoscale-organized sensing layers, tailored for the design of miniaturized biosensors. With the aim of immobilizing enzymes in a defined orientation at the surface of LB bilayers, an original strategy has been previously developed in our group. This approach combines two techniques based on molecular self-assembly properties: liposome fusion at an air/buffer interface and Langmuir–Blodgett technology. It allows the functional insertion of a non-inhibitory antibody in lipid bilayers, further used to anchor a soluble enzyme at the surface of the lipid membrane. When associated with an electrochemiluminescent (ECL) sensor, this molecular assembly allows the design of a biomimetic sensor able to closely integrate the recognition and transduction events. However, sensor's performance not only depends on bioactive sensing layer properties, but also on the additional introduction of luminol in the reaction medium which delays ECL reaction. This work explores the potentiality of two neosynthesized amphiphilic luminol derivatives to form a lipid bilayer serving as a matrix used for both antibody insertion and ECL detection in order to develop a new sensing layer allowing a reagentless detection. As a model, choline oxidase activity has been detected. After enzyme immobilization at the surface of the luminol derivative LB bilayer by the way of specific recognition of a non-inhibitory antibody, in situ catalytic generation of hydrogen peroxide is able to trigger ECL reaction in the sensing layer interfaced with an optoelectronic device leading to a reagentless detection of choline oxidase activity

Microcontact printing of polyelectrolyte multilayer thin films : glass-viscous flow transition based effects and hydratation methods

International audienceMicro and nano-patterned surfaces are important for many applications ranging from antibiofouling over tissue engineering to electronics. Often the incorporation of functional entities is of interest. Polymer coatings especially polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films and patterns are materials offering a large variety of tuning and engineering. The PEM pattern printing quality bases not only on the surface force balance but also in the way the PEM is softened, which can be done by printing the PEM in water, using an ultrasound humidifier or by exposing the film to (hot) water vapor. In this publication it is shown, that cold water vapor from an ultrasound humidifier or direct printing in water is superior to steam evaporation onto PEM thin films as humidification method. In addition the capillary pressure of the patterns within the stamp and the glass–viscous flow transition point of the PEM thin film are the significant parameters for PEM printing. This is because the PEM can surpass the glass–viscous flow transition point due to the shear forces and be sucked into the stamp microwells (or holes) preventing a structure replication. Under high temperatures and in aqueous conditions, the PEM can be expelled from the microwells due to the osmotic pressure produced by the counter ions of PEM in glass–viscous flow state and dissolving polyelectrolyte if a PEM with counter ion based charge balance is used

Do Galactolipid Synthases Play a Key Role in the Biogenesis of Chloroplast Membranes of Higher Plants?

International audienceA unique feature of chloroplasts is their high content of the galactolipids monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG), which constitute up to 80% of their lipids. These galactolipids are synthesized in the chloroplast envelope membrane through the concerted action of galactosyltransferases, the so-called 'MGDG synthases (MGDs)' and 'DGDG synthases (DGDs),' which use uridine diphosphate (UDP)-galactose as donor. In Arabidopsis leaves, under standard conditions, the enzymes MGD1 and DGD1 provide the bulk of galactolipids, necessary for the massive expansion of thylakoid membranes. Under phosphate limited conditions, plants activate another pathway involving MGD2/MGD3 and DGD2 to provide additional DGDG that is exported to extraplastidial membranes where they partly replace phospholipids, a phosphate-saving mechanism in plants. A third enzyme system, which relies on the UDP-Gal-independent GGGT (also called SFR2 for SENSITIVE TO FREEZING 2), can be activated in response to a freezing stress. The biosynthesis of galactolipids by these multiple enzyme sets must be tightly regulated to meet the cellular demand in response to changing environmental conditions. The cooperation between MGD and DGD enzymes with a possible substrate channeling from diacylglycerol to MGDG and DGDG is supported by biochemical and biophysical studies and mutant analyses reviewed herein. The fine-tuning of MGDG to DGDG ratio, which allows the reversible transition from the hexagonal II to lamellar α phase of the lipid bilayer, could be a key factor in thylakoid biogenesis